Remember Benghazi? Remember Eric Holder and the ATF’s failed gun stings? Remember Rep. Darrell Issa’s more than 100 subpoenas issued to the Obama administration? These incidents prompted repeated Republican-led congressional investigations during the Obama presidency. If the tables are turned in the November elections and Democrats take the House, you can be sure that Democrat-led investigations will come fast and furious.

Just line up all the issues dividing members of the House and the President and you are likely to see investigations: Russian election interference, presidential emoluments, children at the border, hate crimes, Cabinet officials’ corruption, and attacks on the Obama health-care law.

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Investigating the executive branch — providing oversight — is a core congressional responsibility. Investigations are one of the primary ways the Congress can enforce the separation of powers by acting as a check against the executive. Over the years, from Teapot Dome to Watergate to Iran-Contra, Congress has helped the public make judgments about the misuse of presidential power by exposing voters to key information. This was particularly evident in the Nixon era, when investigations helped the public understand the President’s involvement in the Watergate burglary.

But if Congressional Democrats seize the majority and ramp up their effort to get answers from the President and the executive branch, they need to be aware that there is likely to be a fierce headwind. At some point, the battle of the branches is likely to find itself in court. If the President’s opponents are likely to revel in their new investigatory powers, the President will have just as much enthusiasm in resisting them.

If the President or members of his administration resist, then the judiciary may well end up refereeing the contest.

Here’s how the battle will go. If executive branch officials refuse to cooperate, the House will order them to testify with a subpoena. Right now, House committee chairmen have subpoena power. If the administration fails to comply with the subpoena, then the House has to decide how to make them comply. Not since the 19th century has the House actually sought to enforce its own contempt orders by ordering the sergeant at arms to arrest someone.

The House can certify a criminal contempt charge to the Department of Justice, but they have to rely upon the Justice Department to enforce that charge, which means it will not happen. More likely, the House will go to court against the President to enforce its subpoenas by a civil action.

The next legal move is entirely predictable. The President and members of his administration will resist, claiming what is known as “executive privilege.” As a general rule, claims of executive privilege are compromised every day in Washington up and down Pennsylvania Ave., as the President and the Congress negotiate requests for information. But the truth is that we know very little about the law of executive privilege other than that claims of absolute presidential privilege are likely to fail.

Precisely because of the legal uncertainty, those resisting a subpoena have a tried and true legal strategy: delay. That strategy has worked in prior Administrations. Wait long enough — two years for example — and there is an entirely new election and Congress may have no interest in the issue.

If the House ends up in court, it should demand more than information; it should demand an expeditious decision on executive privilege. If judges are slow to enforce the subpoenas, as has happened in the past, the Congress may be left without the information so many desperately seek about the President’s exercise of official power.

Nourse is a professor at Georgetown Law and faculty director of its Center on Congressional Studies. She served as senior counsel to Vice President Joe Biden, as well as his senior adviser during his time as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. She also served in the Justice Department during the George H.W. Bush administration, and was counsel to the Senate Iran-Contra Committee.